Laser Applications in Medicine and Biology

Abstract

A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring delivery of each new volume immediately upon publication. Volumes are billed only upon actual shipment.v PREFACE The diversity of the chapters presented in this volume illustrates not only the many applications of lasers, but also the fact that, in many cases, these are not new uses of lasers, but rather improvements of laser techniques already widely accepted in both research and clinical situations. Biological reactions to some special aspects of laser exposure continue to show new effects, which have implications for the ever-present topic of laser safety. Such biological reactions are included in fields of research which depend on properties of electromagnetic radiation exposure only possible with lasers, for example, the short pulses necessary for the temperature-jump experiments reviewed by Reiss:Speciality lasers, such as the transverse excitation atmospheric (TEA) or excimer lasers, add new wavelengths and pulse domains to those already available for biological application. A description of these new types of lasers by Osgood is included to indicate new possibilities for future use and to avoid limiting our coverage to well-developed present-day applications.Hillenkamp and Kaufmann describe a microprobe mass spectrograph for analysis of the minute amounts of material evaporated by a laser pulse. The analytical possibilities of this instrument are far-reaching, and some of the various results are described to illustrate the power of their method, as well as to show the types of problems that are suitable for it.The initial steps in photosynthesis have become the subject of intensive investigation. High-speed laser techniques have assisted in unlocking some of the puzzles of the energy transduction involved, and the present review by Rubin shows both the current state of the art and the possibilities for future experiments.Much of the clinical work using lasers remains in ophthalmology, the first specialty to accept any type of laser exposure as a standard therapy. In addition to its use in the treatment of an ever-increasing number of retinal vii viii Preface problems, laser coagulation has become the standard treatment for glaucoma, for the lens capsule cutting necessitated by the complications of lens implant surgery, and bids fair to proceed even further as lasers are applied to vitreous surgery. The analyses of bioeffects of laser exposures in the eye by Ham and Mueller, and by Allen and Pohlhamus, give some of the scientific background for those applications that have already proven successful and indicate the bases for future clinical applications of lasers in oph thalmology.Each clinical acceptance of a laser instrument broadens the experience of all in the general medical field with regard to laser use. Also, the increasingly larger number of clinicians involved in research on laser surgery adds even more to the diversity of laboratory projects that will in turn become the basis for techniques that in the future...